


If Only... There Was Another Way

by lesbiananimeism



Series: Is This How We Wanted It To End? [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Byleth Twins, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route Spoilers, Twin Byleth, because jeralt is just like that, both twins are named byleth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-13 19:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20588108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbiananimeism/pseuds/lesbiananimeism
Summary: In just five minutes, you broke your only two promises to your brother. Proved two absolute certainties to be lies.You wouldn’t always walk together.And you, unlike he—Are the worst kind of devil.





	If Only... There Was Another Way

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to and inspired by ann | oratoza on Twitter, just like the last one! This time, the second Byleth Twins angst piece they drew.

Perhaps this would have been you, in another world. On your knees, begging for forgiveness from your dead lord—In another world, your presence might not have been able to push the Knights of Seiros and the Kingdom’s forces back into Kingdom territory. It might have been Dimitri and Byleth—_your precious little brother_—that would storm Enbarr, it might have been Dimitri or your brother killing Edelgard, keeping you too preoccupied to take her killing blow.

“Dimitri… I’m… I’m sorry… _Please_…”

Your brother is crying for the second time in his life, but… This time it’s your fault.

_Your fault, your failt, **your fault**_—

You step towards him. Maybe, _maybe_, you can keep him from the same fate you see yourself suffering in that other world. Maybe, just _maybe_, you can keep your baby brother alive.

“Let’s go back, little brother… together.” You try, _you try_, hoping wishing _praying_.

An echoing clang. Felix’s Aegis Shield is in front of you, you distantly hear Edelgard and Sylvain calling your name.

The Sword of the Creator is falling next to you.

_Byleth tried to kill you_.

You stare dazedly as your brother, who’d stood faster than you could see, collapsed to his knees again. His eyes are dead, again—no. Not ‘again’. His eyes, eyes you were always told were perfect copies of yours, have never been this empty. This dead.

They remind you of the void of Zahras.

“So…” he rasps finally, “this is it…”

Anger surges through you then. Fiery, indignant _anger_ like you’ve never felt fills your entire being.

Before you consciously realise, your hands are clenched in Byleth’s collar, bringing him up close to you.

“‘So this is it’?! Are you actually _okay_ with just letting it end like this?!”

You can’t believe it—your brother that reacted to Jeralt’s death with fury, who sliced Solon into ribbons for killing Kronya before him (and only briefly do you compare the angry madness buried within your brother to Dimitri’s), _is giving up_.

“…Kill me.”

You still. Your grip on Byleth slackens and he lifts his head to you, eyes pleading.

“I… I can’t afford to leave him alone… not again… _Not again_…”

You think you hate Dimitri, at least a little bit, for the loyalty and love your brother has—_had_—for him.

And as your grip on him fades entirely—as he slumps back onto the floor, do you see _finally see with that Goddess blasted sight Sothis left you_.

This is the only way. The only way for your brother—_your brother, precious baby brother, the brother you bore the moniker of Ashen Demon for_—to die vaguely peacefully.

By your own hands.

“_Please_, sister…”

**Big sister, is it true what they say?**

What? No… no, nonononono—

**We’re not really demons are we?**

Edelgard is sliding the hilt of that damned, _eternally Sothis damned bloody monstrous_, Sword of the Creator into your hands.

**I’m sorry sister, but… you chose your path, and I chose mine. **

Slowly, _slowly agonisingly painfully_, you life the blade above your head.

You promised _you promised **youpromisedyoupromisedyoupromisedYOUPROMISED**_

**May our paths never deviate, my dear big sister.**

You swing down.

He drops down.

This didn’t have to happen.

This didn’t have to happen.

_This shouldn’t have happened_.

Edelgard’s hand is on your shoulder.

You drop down.

Tears fall. Again. Again and again and _again_.

In just five minutes, you broke your only two promises to your brother. Proved two absolute certainties to be lies.

You wouldn’t always walk together.

And you, unlike he—

**I don’t think you’re a demon, big sister**.

Are the worst kind of devil.

**Author's Note:**

> So kind of spontaneously written---I really wanted to write more Byleth Twins but the idea I have to expand Ann's art into a bigger AU is gonna' require more knowledge of the Blue Lions/Azure Moon and Golden Deer/Verdant Winds routes, so I need to hold off on writing any kind of bigger story for them just yet. And frankly, I actually kind of wanted to write the Crimson Flower outcome for the two. Unfortunately I think this one isn't quite as good or powerful as "Is This... What You Wanted?" but... that's just how it is.


End file.
